"Singers attempting stuff they don't have the range for because the dots is in a specific key."

My music teacher would transcribe the Eisteddfod vocal pieces for me to the correct key for my voice range (allowed under the rules!).

The Classically Trained muso learns another VERY IMPORTANT skill to those I previously mentioned, which he has to demonstrate in exams - 'transcription'. In written exams, you must show how to shift a tune from one key to another, and write it our correctly, correct time signatures, note lengths, etc. In practical demonstrations, you don't even get the luxury of pen and paper, you just 'do it' - 'on the fly'!.

In case you still think that Classically Trained musos (Instrumental AND Vocal) are stupid for spending all those thousands of hours doing all those major & Minor (2 variants) scales (36 basic scales in all) (and arpeggio scales! - oh and all that other exercise stuff in 'Hanon'), and that you, as a 'Folkie' are 'better that that', so that 'all you need to practice is just the pieces you want to play', I'll let you into a little well kept secret - all that scale and other exercise practice makes that 'transcription' stuff a real doddle! :-)

Now I'm going to have to kill you .... and since you aren't really practicing enough (by Classical Music standards!) to be as good as you think you are, that's probably a great kindness to Mankind anyway ... :-P

:-)